Karen#1 wrote:Congratulations Kookaburra to you and Gottabrain for the amazing amount of help and support to the Taiwanese girl and all you did on making this story get known.

Seconded!

I watched the segment in disbelief, and my heart broke when the cameras filmed Alice in her home looking like a shadow of the gorgeous, bright young girl she was only a short time ago. Steve Cannane and Lateline are to be commended.

I do not want to defend scientology in any way, nor any physician for incorrectly prescribing and administering any medication. But, I do cringe every time I see a medication unfairly demonized, anywhere.
Seroquel, to the best of my knowledge, and to the extent I can find out online, etc,. does not cause permanent brain damage. It can be used very successfully to treat bipolar illness and schizophrenia.
I hate that this vulnerable young woman was given this medication in 'massive doses.' But my research does not indicate that even that would cause brain damage. More likely, any brain damage she may be experiencing, has come from physical abuse. She could have come to the authorities with a subdural hematoma that did not present until after some period of time that made it appear unrelated to events preceding her arrival.
I will agree that her weight gain is likely from the Seroquel. A majority of patients do gain weight from psychotropic drugs. Again, however, it should be mentioned that some do cause weight loss.
Above all, I am sick over what this person has endured. This cult needs to be stopped. Not only is it breaking apart marriages and families, it is destroying individuals. And, if news reports are true, it is engaging in human trafficking. The last is not hard to believe, given the cos's track record of human right's violations.
I'm sure I sound very naive. I am highly inexperienced at all this and have just recently become aware of the atrocity aka scientology. And I refuse to capitalize their name(s).
For an organization with such silly ideas ( I mean xenu, thetans, ot levels,...come on!) they certainly do a huge amount of damage. And what are they going to do if lrh is reincarnated as a gay person who needs to be on an antidepressant?
My most sincere thanks to all of you who are posting and thereby educating those of us who are clueless. I got started with all of this thanks to Jenna M. Hill's book, then Lawrence Wright's.

nltomboy2 wrote:I do not want to defend scientology in any way, nor any physician for incorrectly prescribing and administering any medication. But, I do cringe every time I see a medication unfairly demonized, anywhere.
Seroquel, to the best of my knowledge, and to the extent I can find out online, etc,. does not cause permanent brain damage. It can be used very successfully to treat bipolar illness and schizophrenia.
I hate that this vulnerable young woman was given this medication in 'massive doses.' But my research does not indicate that even that would cause brain damage. More likely, any brain damage she may be experiencing, has come from physical abuse. She could have come to the authorities with a subdural hematoma that did not present until after some period of time that made it appear unrelated to events preceding her arrival.
I will agree that her weight gain is likely from the Seroquel. A majority of patients do gain weight from psychotropic drugs. Again, however, it should be mentioned that some do cause weight loss.
Above all, I am sick over what this person has endured. This cult needs to be stopped. Not only is it breaking apart marriages and families, it is destroying individuals. And, if news reports are true, it is engaging in human trafficking. The last is not hard to believe, given the cos's track record of human right's violations.
I'm sure I sound very naive. I am highly inexperienced at all this and have just recently become aware of the atrocity aka scientology. And I refuse to capitalize their name(s).
For an organization with such silly ideas ( I mean xenu, thetans, ot levels,...come on!) they certainly do a huge amount of damage. And what are they going to do if lrh is reincarnated as a gay person who needs to be on an antidepressant?
My most sincere thanks to all of you who are posting and thereby educating those of us who are clueless. I got started with all of this thanks to Jenna M. Hill's book, then Lawrence Wright's.

Welcome to clambake, nltomboy2. You don't sound naive at all. And I appreciate your knowledgeable input. I think the last people in the world who should be prescribing medications are scientologists (I don't capitalize it either!). One of their most common crimes is practicing medicine without a license. That is one of the problems the authorities were trying to deal with when LRon re-established his scam as a religion way back when. Reading the history of scientology is fascinating, if you're interested. I recommend Professor Hugh Urban's book "The Church of Scientology: A History of a New Religion". Don't worry about him calling it a church. As a scholar, he's obligated to do that. It is the US Gov. that sanctions that title and allows it to enjoy legitimacy under the law in the US. We've had several campaigns (petitions, FBI investigations) to try and reverse that travesty. There are plenty of opportunities for activism so if you're interested, stick around.

Scientology claims to cure mental illness, beginning with LRon's book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. Because of this they wind up abusing anyone who is in need of actual treatment with their pseudo/harmful treatment. There are many cases of abuse. Anyone who has a breakdown within the organization is placed in isolation and held against their will. Their silent, forceful treatment is downright cruel. They have no clue what they are doing, and many of these victims get into serious trouble.

“The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.”
― Hannah Arendt

xxx wrote:She is safely home but not fully recovered. Yes, she has some sort of breakdown, due to the imprisonment, or they isolated her because of the breakdown - standard procedure I think.

Dear xxx, if you somehow get the chance, please pass on our love and support to Alice and her family. The image of Alice shuffling around her home, a fragile shadow of her former self, hasn't left me since I first watched the Lateline programme. I'm tearing up even now thinking about her. It won't do her any physical good to know that there are people all across the world who care about her, but the psychological benefits might be really helpful.

Thank you again for bringing the story to our attention so long before it actually aired on television.